CHAMPCAR/CART: Assen: Post-race press conference

JUSTIN WILSON
JAN HEYLEN
BRUNO JUNQUEIRA
THE MODERATOR:
Good afternoon. Welcome to the post-race press
conference. We're going to go ahead and get started with our third place
finisher, Bruno Junqueira. Your second podium in as many...

JUSTIN WILSON

JAN HEYLEN

BRUNO JUNQUEIRA

THE MODERATOR:
Good afternoon. Welcome to the post-race press
conference. We're going to go ahead and get started with our third place
finisher, Bruno Junqueira. Your second podium in as many places in here
in Europe, seems to be turning the corner for Dale Coyne Racing.

BRUNO JUNQUEIRA:
Yeah, very happy again today to race in Europe, I'm
usually very lucky here where I won my last championship back in 2000, so
I like those kinds of tracks.

The race today started pretty hard but we did a good start and Tracy ran
in front of me, I hit him a little bit but still managed to lose just two
positions. I passed one car and I was driving good. Suddenly I had a
flat tire, maybe because I crash, I don't know. I had to pit, came out
of order, I was last and when everybody pitted, I took the lead. My car
was pretty good today. Could save fuel and still go pretty fast. I did
a good pace throughout the whole race, almost the entire time I was
leading and I felt very good. I think the team did a good job.

Unfortunately the last pit stop, when I came to the pits, this race is
one of the only races that you have two speed limits. It's like 75 and
then go back down to 40. So the speed limit to go 75, for some reason, I
don't know, went to 40 miles per hour. So I tried to go back and reset
for 75, so probably last three or four seconds on that stop and I had
like four and a half seconds over Justin and I went to pit. So that
compromised my race. I think it caused it to be close because Justin
went one or two laps further than me. So it was close but unfortunately
I lost three positions to Jan in the end but I was able to pass Gommendy
and secure a position.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy starting 11th after a tough day yesterday. And
to start the race with a flat and pretty happy second in the race and
everything. I know I cannot win the championship but I want to finish as
best as I can, maybe seven or eight would be great. So we have a third,
we have a second and hopefully win one of the few last races of the year
and we can get our first win.

Thank you, very much, everybody and I really enjoyed Holland, Belgium as
well, both very, very nice tracks, and great crowds. People are
enthusiastic and knowing about Champ Cars. It was a lot of fun to come
here.

THE MODERATOR:
Thank you, Bruno, now our second place finisher, Jan
Heylen. And Jan, it's your first career podium and unfortunately about
one race too late for you.

JAN HEYLEN:
Yeah, well, finally. We had a tough season start already
missing the first race and then coming into the season with a one-car
team, definitely not the easiest. We didn't have the easiest start of
the season, and then we had some bad luck at the start there in the first
couple of races got taken out by Gommendy and that's another bad luck.

To top it all off, last week in my home race in Belgium, started off
really bad on Friday, and then you know, we lost seventh gear in the
race. We come here, fresh start, and the car felt pretty good and I
think we held our pace on Saturday, the warmup, and then unfortunately,
you know, I don't think I got the best out of it in qualifying.

But yeah, then today the race, I told Eric yesterday, I had the same
feeling I had as when I'm on the Formula Ford Festival; everything felt
good. The car was there to do it and like I said, after all of the bad
luck, this was time for it to change, and it did.

And I'm so happy for the team for everybody, all of the sponsors
involved, big thanks to them and I think everybody has done an amazing
job for the car and the budget that we have. It's unbelievable to be
here.

THE MODERATOR:
Our winner today, Justin Wilson, who earned his first win
this season here in Holland.

You had Jan on your tail pretty much most of the race, how was it holding
him off?

JUSTIN WILSON:

Well, it was pretty tough. I did see Jan was quick. He
was quick where I was weak. We got the top end gears slightly wrong. I
was hitting the regulator coming into turn 15 and I could see Jan was
very quick all the way through 15 to the last chicane. We had our work
cut out making sure I didn't hit the limit to hard and kill the speed.
So each lap was very inconsistent.

The car was working well, especially after the problems we had this
morning in the warmup where we had an oil line leak. That put us
behind. But everybody on the team has done a great job, the pit stops
were good. And Mike Talbott, my engineer, did a fantastic job working
out a setup with no run. So just got to thank them and CDW for them
being great sponsors and being very supportive.

THE MODERATOR:

Thank you, Justin, and now we'll open up to questions
from the media.

Q.
Justin, Neel said earlier in the race you hit a cone or something;
can you explain?

JUSTIN WILSON:
I have no idea. (Laughter) I don't know. I was getting
close to the one in turn 16. Each lap, if I got too wide there, I would
pick up a lot of understeer. So I was trying to just try and burst that
cone every lap and if I did that, I would get the best exit. So I don't
know what happened.

Q.
You made a lot of progress throughout the first laps, but it was said
that passing was difficult here, can you go talk about it?

JAN HEYLEN:
Yeah, we talked through it, the engineers, before we started
the race and I predicted that that was going to be the place where it was
going to happen. Luckily for me, it was easy enough to do it. The car
coming out of turn 10 was really good. I think I gave every lap, I was
pretty quick through 6 and 7. I think that's where I made up most of my
time. And then it allowed me to be close enough to the guy in front of
me to get a good run on them coming out of ten and then to overtake him
coming out of 15. So it was, you know, I was a little surprised myself
by how good everything was going. But it was good. It worked out.

Q.
Justin, yesterday after second qualifying you were a little off the
pace what changed from then until now?

JUSTIN WILSON:
What has changed? Just the circumstances I think. I
wasn't too confident that we had the pace. We were second in qualifying
and then we went to the warm up this morning and had that gear box
problem, and again didn't feel particularly confident. But at that stage
we felt like we had nothing to lose. So we were in the fortunate
position of starting second, and we think we worked out what we had done
wrong with the setup and put it as close to right as we could. So, you
know, I guess our predictions worked out.

Q.
You seemed to have a good start, can you talk us through it?

JUSTIN WILSON:
Well, you never can tell. The main thing was the lights
were very quick again, so nobody had a chance to jump them. It was
nice. No one was rolling and was able to get a reasonable start and then
cut down the wheel spin and get on with it

Went down to turn one. It was nice of Sebastien to give me the inside.
I think he was just returning the favor from San Jose.

Q.
What are your overall thoughts on the success of the European tour?

JUSTIN WILSON:
It's been fantastic to come here and come to two great
events. You know, Champ Car has been to Europe before, and it's had
reasonable success but not enough to keep it coming back here year after
year. But today was fantastic. Last week was great. I was saying to my
guys as we prepared up on the grid, I think this track is 2.8 miles and
you've got 2.8 miles of banking all the way around, the grandstands. But
you've got that banking all the way around and it was full. It was just
incredible to see. To me it seems the same if not better than any
Formula 1 race I've been to.

JAN HEYLEN:
For me obviously to come here, and Zolder the home race,
that in itself was fantastic. But like Justin said, I think both races
have been a success.

But what stood out for me was how enthusiastic all of the people were,
all of the parade laps and signing sessions and all of the people were
there for the drivers. I think from my point of view, that was a
difference from what we see in America. Yeah, looking forward to coming
back here next year, and I think both promoters have done a really good
job. And I'm sure they have learned a lot from it and I'll sure that
next year when we come back, it will be even better.

BRUNO JUNQUEIRA:
I was very amazed by how many people were on the
track. Today when they did the parade, as Justin said, there was people
everywhere and people here and Belgium, they are very knowledgeable.
They bring pictures of myself racing in Europe in Formula 1 in
2000 -- I look so much younger. (Laughter) so it brings to me a
lot of good memories.

So as I said, the race fans here, racing is a very big sport in Europe.
They follow a lot of European drivers that race in America and they
follow Champ Car a lot. Being here in 2002 and 2003, we've been in
Germany and in England; that was good. But I think the race today and
the race in Belgium was great. I think today, I had never seen so many
people on the track for so long like today. Even when I was racing in
Formula 3000, the Formula 1 races, I don't know -- today, as
Justin said, maybe more people than any Formula 1 race I've ever seen.
It was a lot of fun. I think the only race that I see more people than
today is Australia maybe and Mexico City was very good crowd and very
enthusiastic.

Q.
There was some issue with the power pass today; did any of you three
have a problem with it and how did it affect the race?

JUSTIN WILSON:
Well, I never got a chance to use it. I guess in
hindsight that was a good thing. The team came on the radio and said
"you are not allowed to use it." After that, it was pretty
straightforward.

I was wanting to use it because I was revving in seventh gear so much, I
really needed the extra RPM, but it just wasn't there.

JAN HEYLEN:
I think I got lucky and used it once or twice in the
beginning of the race and one time I used it right and got to pass
someone. Same for me; the team came on the radio and they had to say two
or three times before I really got it. But yeah, they made it clear that
there was no more push-to-pass to be used and that was it for the
rest of the race.

Again, maybe certainly a little thing, the push-to-pass does make
the racing better, so it's a pity we couldn't use it anymore.

BRUNO JUNQUEIRA:
I used it very early in the race because I lost a few
positions. I used once and then I didn't use it anymore. But
unfortunately, I don't know, on the last pit stops as I said, the pit
lane speed limiter came on, 45 miles per hour, I don't know, maybe
because I use the push-to-pass or not. After the whole race, I
couldn't use the push-to-pass anyway. I think they told me about
that, but the radio wasn't very good. So I couldn't understand, but I
couldn't use because I had to save.

Q.
You mentioned earlier -- so far you had best results in
Europe. Would you like to have more races in Europe?

BRUNO JUNQUEIRA:
I mean, maybe, I've never been Zolder, I've never been
here. I just like when I come to Europe. But I mean, I like what Champ
Car is because it's easy to race all over the world. We race in U.S.,
Canada, Mexico, I love the race in Australia. I actually love the race
in Japan, that's a pretty nice place, as well. Unfortunately not racing
there anymore but that's nice if one day we can come back. And Europe is
very special. I think we need to have at least two races here, maybe
more. If you go to a track that I know, it would be great, as well. In
Europe there are so many nice tracks so it would be difficult to pick
one.

Q.
Justin, can you talk about your race and just how it played
out -- were you at all concerned that these guys were going to
make it?

JUSTIN WILSON:
Yeah, I was definitely concerned at some points during
the race that Bruno being on a slightly different strategy might, you
know, give him the opportunity to get the lead. He was ahead of me on
track, but I knew when the pit cycled through that I should be back
ahead.

So I just stuck to my plan of trying to save fuel. At that stage, I felt
like I was racing Jan and Neel Jani, Gommendy, Doornbos, and I know
Sebastien is always very good at fuel mileage. So I focused on getting
very good mileage and let Bruno pull away. I knew when we all pitted at
the same time, it was going to be those guys that had a chance. And then
when it was time to go, I felt pretty good. The car was working well.
The faster I went, the better my balance was.